Guidance

Have your students set goals for upcoming assessments and finishing the year? Are they written in their agenda where they will see them every day? Studies show goal setting significantly improve performance. Here are Zig Ziglar's suggestions on how to help students set goals.

1. Remind them that if they are somebody to anybody, they are somebody. That "anybody" could be a friend, a classmate, a teacher, coach, Mom, Dad, brother, sister, grandparent--and, if all else fails, remind them that you love them.

2. Tell them they can make big gains in small steps. Earthquakes and hurricanes get all the publicity, but termites do the most damage. Think how small termites are, and what small bites they take! For 24 years I was overweight, but when I realized that all I had to do was lose 1.9 ounces, on average, every day for ten months to weigh what the Cooper Clinic told me I needed to weigh, I knew I could do that. I lost the weight and now, 28 years later, the weight is still gone. Tell them, "If you set a goal to study just 20 minutes each day longer than you have been studying, you will be amazed at what that will do for your grades this semester. Repeat it every day for the year, and you will have taken a substantial step towards achieving some long-range objectives."

3. Remind them that failure is an event and not a person; that yesterday really did end last night, and today is a brand new day. They can make something out of it. Remind them that penicillin originally came from moldy bread.

4. Remind them that nobody ever accomplishes anything great without some failures along the way. It's failure to reach a goal that sometimes inspires us to try harder next time. Sir Edmund Hillary was recognized by the British Parliament for his incredible attempt to climb Mt. Everest. The first time around, he failed and several members of his expedition lost their lives in the process. When Sir Edmund stood in front of the British Parliament they gave him a standing ovation. He ignored the crowd, looked at the picture of Mt. Everest, which they had blown up to, a huge size, shook his fist at it and said, "You won this time, but you're as big as you're going to get! I'm getting bigger every day." Tell them that what has happened in their past is exactly that - it's the past. They will still have problems, but if they grow and learn from each one, they will eventually become the winners they were born to be.

B) Dream Big Dreams

"Never let your memories be greater than your dreams." -- Doug Ivester

"All of our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney

"I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams." -- Dr. Jonas Salk

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose." -- Brian Tracy

"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable." -- Christopher Reeves

"Live out of your imagination, not your history." -- Stephen Covey

C) More from Steve Wright

* I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
* 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
* 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
* A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
* All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.
* I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
* OK, so what's the speed of dark? ===========================================================